Back to Gary Varner's home page Links to more far-flung stuff This is basically my personal bookmarks rendered independent of any browser software and set out in public against the chance you find something useful here too. The links are collected under these headings: Words - The internet - Time - Weather - Up in the air - Above the weather - The earthly environment - Sustenance - Cycling - Sounds - People - Numbers

Plan your trip   Local Radar   Detailed Forecast Regional radar: CLL, IAH, DFW SAT 2 day chart, 10 day forecast

While I was a graduate advisor in my department (2003-2010), I collected useful links for graduate students (and their advisors) and now I've moved them here.

Words
• Philosiology: Advice for people whose loved ones have become philosophers
• Evans Library catalog and their dandy Getitforme.library.tamu.edu document delivery system
• Dictionaries:

  • The venerable O.E.D.

    Search Oxford English Dictionary

    Enter word or phrase:
    

  • The Free Dictionary
  • An on-line Webster's dictionary
  • A dictionary of American-Australian slang
  • A Worthless Word For The Day
  • And www.onelook.com searches multiple dictionaries (wildcards = "?" and "*"):
• Exercise: Recognizing Plagiarism (by Charlotte Bronson of Iowa State)
• The Guardian
• The New York Times
• The TAMU Medical Sciences Library catalog
• Backpack and Writeboard are on-line collaborative authorship services
• A free on-line translator, FreeTranslation.com
• Find rhyming words
• The UT Austin guidelines for classroom copying and their discussion of fair use of copyrighted materials
• BibleGateway.com

The internet
• Logon to philosophy.tamu.edu or Horde in the Philosophy Department at Texas A&M
• The LISTSERV page at Texas A&M. A very few of the LISTSERV lists at Texas A&M:
  • ISEE-L
  • GPAC
  • BLAB
• The BLAB (Brain, Language and Animal Behavior) group is supported by the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M
• SPACKLED is a BLAB franchise at the University of Indiana
• The PHILGRADS list: http://philosophy.tamu.edu/mailman/listinfo/philgrads sends mail to all graduate students in the Philosophy Department
• An HTML special characters guide
• A couple of versions of the hexidecimal RGB color spectrum: from barefootsworld, and Milesresearch
• A screen size test
• TV listings from the Bryan-College Station The Eagle
• The Calibrated Peer Review system at UCLA (seems like a good idea)
• Slidescanning.com (I used this service to digitize hundreds of slides I shot in the 70's and 80's)
• Snapfish on-line photo printing service

Time
• Get the correct time (in the Central Time Zone): my crude version, a flashier version, and a still flashier one
• U.S. time zones and international time zones from www.time.gov
• Compare the current time in cities around the world and lots of other stuff at TimeAndDate.com
• Visit the Time Service Department of the U.S. Naval Observatory, the ultimate legal authority on time in the United States
• Calculate the time you have remaining at www.deathclock.com (here's my personalized death clock)

Weather
• Forecasts for the Bryan-College Station area:
  • The Weather Underground
  • NOAA's website has a standard forecast, but also an excellent "MapClick" forecast generator. Here's the URL for a Bryan forecast: http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?w0=t&w1=td&w2=hi&w3=sfcwind&w3u=1&w4=sky&w5=pop&w6=rh&w7=thunder&w8=rain&AheadHour=0&Submit=Submit&FcstType=graphical&textField1=30.66850&textField2=-96.36520&site=all&unit=0&dd=0&bw=0. By replacing the numbers for latitude (30.6685) and longitude (96.3652) in that URL you can retrieve the same data for other locations.
  • WeatherReports.com
  • The Weather Channel includes a ten day forecast
  • WeatherStreet
• Regional radar:
  • CLL (College Station) radar from WeatherUnderground
  • IAH (Houston) radar from Weather Underground
  • Bryan-College Station area from The Weather Channel
• The NOAA Storm Prediction Center:
  • Watch/warning map
  • Current watches

Up in the air
• Continental Airlines, American Airlines (the two that serve Bryan-College Station)
• Travelocity.com, Orbitz.com, Expedia, and Cheaptickets.com for booking flights, AutoEurope.com, and Hotels.com for hotels
• Ratefinder (to search multiple on-line booking agencies simultaneously)
• The CLL - IAH airport shuttle

Above the weather
• Light pollution: here are a New Yorker article on light pollution and the World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness
• Here: http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/earth/spacecraft.html is an amazing collection of images of Earth from "deep space" (which really just means out of low Earth orbit)
• Heavens-Above is a really neat satellite-tracking program
• Schedules of stuff:
  • Schedule of annual meteor showers
  • At http://www.sunrisesunset.com/ you can use the "custom sunrise and sunset calculator" to print a calendar month showing sunrise, sunset, and twilight times for each day
  • And from the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO) you can print out a year's worth of data for lunar phases, sunsets, twilight, etc. at http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/data-services
• The Your Sky interactive planetarium, the Earth and Moon Viewer, and Solar System Live, all from John Walker's page, where you can also download the Home Planet software that locates all of the above on your own computer
• The Earth & Sky program's page
• The Nasa home page includes NASA TV for Windows Media player
• Balloon tying with Professor Wonder

The earthly environment
• topoquest.com for free U.S. topo maps.
• Here: http://itouchmap.com/latlong.html you can get the latitude, longitude, and (if the "Terrain" map option displays a topo map) the elevation of any place that you can point to on Google Maps.
  • For instance, the tarmac outside the Easterwood Airport terminal is at about 30.592 degrees north latitude, 96.346 west longitude, and 318 feet above sea level (although I got the elevation from another source).
  • This information can then be used to get detailed weather forecasts from NOAA, sunrise/sunset data from USNO, and satelite overflight information from Heavens-Above via the links provided above.
• To calculate the length of a running or cycling workout: Google Pedometer, MapMyRun.com, MapMyRide.com
• Topozone for topographic maps
• USDA plant hardiness zone map
• Some Texas-specific stuff:
  • A virtual tour of Lick Creek Park in southern College Station
  • Maps of Texas
  • Texas lakes, rivers, and fishing & boating regulations
• Birds of North America on-line (from Cornell)
• Cat calls (the ones that come from felines rather than construction workers)
• The National Register of Big Trees
• The Tree of Life project at the University of Arizona (it's not just about trees)
• Stuff about visiting Portugal:
  • A virtual tour of Portugal (a sort of vanity postcard of my first trip there)
  • A gallery of professional pictures of the country
  • The Portugal News On-Line (English language newspaper)
  • Oeste Online (a Portuguese language newspaper)
  • viajar.clix.pt (info on lodging and public transportation)
  • Train lines in Portugal
  • Trams and buses in Lisbon
  • Metro Lisboa
  • Rede Express bus lines
• Euro/Dollar conversion rates
• Magellon's world-wide tipping guide
• WheresGeorge.com (tracking the movement of bills in circulation)

Sustenance
• A few recipes
• My favorite restaurants
• Information on environmentally preferable seafood is available from The Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch and from The Fish List
• Mercury levels in seafood from the EPA and the DHHS
• Local Harvest (to find locally grown food)
• The Farmed Animal Watch
• Super Bock beer of beautiful Portugal
• The Capitol Brewery in Madison, Wisconsin
• Ziegenbock and Shiner Bock beers of Texas
• The Celis Brewery produced a fantastic weiss (white) beer until it closed in January of 2001, but it is being brewed again in Michigan now
• The Chef's catalog is a fine source of kitchen stuff

Cycling
• Brazos Valley Cyclists (BVC)
• Bike Texas (miscellaneous legal stuff)
• Cycling gear: Price Point, Performance Bike, and Nashbar.com

• Some local routes by rough direction:

  Towards the north:

  • A 40-ish mile loop out past Lake Bryan and back plus around the back of the airport (34 or so miles if you drop that last part): http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/tx/college%20station/429551357790
  • The annual M.L.K. Day century route: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/tx/college-station/248126340627254194

  Towards the northeast:

  • "Baker's Hubris": http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2273203
  • "Colin's corners" (some nice roads in NE Brazos County): http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1534179 - http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/tx/college%2520station/433590145948
  • Chris' "Epic Blackjack Loop," another northerly route (67 miles): http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/tx/college%20station/526258333131

  Towards the east:

  • The weekly TNP ("Take No Prisoners") route (26 miles or 32.5 miles if you go twice around the terminal loop): http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=807154 (description here: http://www.brazoscyclists.org/train.htm)
  • Another, unnamed route in the same area: http://tinyurl.com/4n98r2.
  • The Elmo Weedon/Old Reliance loop (36 miles to the northeast): http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2286347 (this can be expanded to about 46 miles by heading down Glade and Anderson to Rock Prairie and angling up to highway 30 via Bird Pond Road).

  Towards the southeast:

  • Out through Carlos, Piedmont, Erwin, and Anderson ("the Anderson Loop," 64 miles): http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2013784
  • The same loop with a detour through Richards (for a total of 80 miles): http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/tx/college-station/320213551211
  • From College Station to Kings Orchard farm near Plantersville (April 2009 Brazos Locavores field trip): http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/tx/college-station/226123738932187741

  Towards the south:

  • The Southside Loop, longer (42 mile) version: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/tx/college-station/1039283547
  • The Southside Loop, shorter (34.5 mile) version: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/tx/college-station/483911243882
  • The Southside Loop, still shorter (27.9 mile) version: http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/tx/college%20station/739843409789
  • The "worst ride of the year" route (45 miles): http://www.mapmyrun.com/ride/united-states/tx/college-station/664735127
  • The TAMU-Millican-Allen Farm-Navasota-Carlos-TAMU loop (~75 miles): http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/tx/college%20station/282126054142614992 (local riders recommend doing this clockwise though, the opposite of what I drew

  Towards the southwest:

  • Out past Lick Creek through Millikan and beyond: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1534269
  • The annual Fourth of July century: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3843317 (100 miles through Millican, Navasota, Independence, and Snook).

  Towards the west:

  • The weekly (Saturday) BVC Flagpole Ride (52 miles through Tunis, Caldwell, and Cook's Point): http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2017094 (description here: http://www.brazoscyclists.org/train.htm)
  • The monthly second Saturday ride: http://www.brazoscyclists.org/PMSride.pdf (description here: http://www.brazoscyclists.org/train.htm)

  Towards the northwest:

  • Out 47 to 21 and around the airport (28 miles): http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1534312

• Some more far-flung routes:

  • Kerrville-Center Point: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/tx/kerrville/883124353401576461.
  • Kerrville-Comfort-Center Point: http://www.mapmyride.com/route/detail/17963348/ (50 miles and a sufferfest of hills).
  • Kerrville north to Fredericksburg and on to Comfort: (coming soon).

  • College Station to Austin: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1359902.

  • McAllen-Granjeno-Bentsen State Park: http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/tx/mission/132126159015288234 (24.5 miles one-way).
  • McAllen-Granjeno-La Puerta: http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/tx/mcallen/898126159059051937 (50 miles one-way).
  • McAllen out Military Highway east: http://www.mapmyride.com/route/us/tx/mcallen/181126159200894739 (just sizing this direction up).

• Some organized (pay to ride/benefit) rides:

  • The Mayday Challenge is a local "metric century" (100 kilometeres).
  • The Katy Flatland Century was my first century (100 mile) ride.
  • The Hotter'N Hell 100 claims to be "The largest sanctioned century bicycle ride in the country."

Sounds
• Find NPR stations (position cursor on station to show coverage)
• Listen, using Windows Media Player, to: KAMU, KAMU's HD2 stream
• Listen to WOAI in Des Moines.
• Listen to WTAW (the local carrier for Rush Limbaugh and Coast to Coast A.M.)
• Find Rush Limbaugh and Coast to Coast a.m. affiliates
• The Kerrville Folk Festival
• The Kerrville University Songwriting Competition
• Art of the Song is a nice syndicated program about songwriting
• Austin music listed by venue from Austin Metro Entertainment
• A listing of house concert series nation-wide (these are a great way to hear folk music, and there are ones right here in College Station and in Brenham!
• To The Best Of Our Knowledge, a nice weekly news/documentary show
• West Coast Live (sort of A Prairie Home Companion in Birkenstocks)
• This American Life, a program of audio essays
• NPR's award-winning interview program Fresh Air with Terry Gross, on NPR

People
• A Myers-Briggs style personality assessment
• Switchboard.com, a telephone directory with names, addresses, and phone numbers from white pages all over the USofA
• Brazos Progressives
• PollingReport.com

Numbers
• Get auto blue book values via Kelly Blue Book and dealer incoice prices via Edmunds.com
• Check on the stock market
• Check your accounts at Citi Bank (ne. First American)
• Check your accounts with ING (ne. Aetna)
• Check your ING Direct accounts
• Check your Chase credit card account or scheduled payments
• https://www.annualcreditreport.com/ is a convenient, free way to do an annual credit check
• Check your account with Credo mobile phone service
• Spell out your phone number on http://www.phoneSpell.org/
• Locate telephone prefixes through TheDirectory.org
• Area codes
• Postage rates

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